THE Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) has selected Telstra in a 10-year contract to provide continuing telecommunications services through its NextG network to support ARTC's National Train Communications System (NTCS) for the 8500km Australian freight railway network.

TESTING and commissioning is underway of the first of 18 7.2MW electric locomotives built by CRRC subsidiary Datong Locomotive Works for Belarus Railways (BC).

FULL operations on the long-awaited 17.5km extensions to Nottingham's light rail network commenced on August 25, almost eight months behind schedule.

SEIBU Railway's new series 40,000 trains, which are due to enter service on lines serving Tokyo and its suburbs in spring 2017, will be fitted with propulsion systems supplied by Toshiba after the company won a contract to deliver 24 sets for eight 10-car trains.

RESIDENTS of Mesa, a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona, and Sacramento, California, are celebrating the latest additions to their city's light rail networks which opened on August 22 and 24 respectively.

BRAZIL's National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) has approved a Reais 746.5m ($US 212.8m) loan for Rio de Janeiro's 28km Porto Maravilha light rail project.

GREATER Leipzig Transport Authority (ZVNL) has published a tender for operation of diesel services on the Northwest Saxony line R7 between Leipzig and Geithain in the Official Journal of the European Union.

VIVARAIL has begun dynamic testing of its prototype D-Train DMU on the test track at its base at Long Marston in central England.

WORK will start on August 22 on upgrading the cross-border rail link between Heerlen, Netherlands and Aachen, Germany.

INDIAN Railways (IR) has received bids from seven parties for a contract worth Rs 25bn ($US 379m) to supply 315 main line EMUs divided into 20 trains of 16 and 20-car sets, which will deployed on IR's existing broad-gauge Rajdhani and Shatabdi express services.